Chapter 38
A false alarm—or is it?
Devyn
“We really should stay home,” I said by way of a greeting as I walked in the kitchen.
When I woke up that morning, Heston had already been awake for a while—I wasn’t sure how long—probably hours, given the fact that he had a full-on feast on the counter and was packing it in the cooler.
“Why should we stay home? The doctor said that it was Braxton Hicks and it was no big deal,”
He was right. After his cramping and the rush to the ER, where they sent him up to triage, the doctors determined he wasn’t in labor, and the contractions subsided.
But that didn’t mean I wanted us to be away from home, and I definitely didn’t want him away from me.
Thankfully he was on board with the latter.
“I think you only heard what you wanted to hear from the doctor,” I said and immediately regretted it.
He gave me side-eye. “Don’t even begin to patronize me.”
“I’m not… I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just that they said to take it easy.”
“Yeah, they said that. But what else did they say?”
I shrugged, unsure what he was getting at.
“They said I had no restrictions. None. And no restrictions means we can go and have a picnic where you first showed me your beast. Now, either you’re going to help me pack the cooler, or you can find us a nice blanket and some pillows. I don’t care which.”
“I’ll help you with the cooler, and then I’ll go get the pillows.” If we were going to do this, I wasn’t going to have him bear the brunt of the work, though he’d already cooked so most of the work was done.
And really, there was no point arguing. Arguing wouldn’t do any good anyway. My pregnant mate had been pretty feisty lately.
I crossed over to him, kissed his cheek, “Good morning. I forgot that part.”
“Yeah, you did.” He reached up behind my head, pulled my face close, and kissed me senseless. “Now, let’s get a move on. I want to be around your beast today.”
I wasn’t going to deny him that, and maybe if he had led with that, I would’ve been less pushy. Probably not, but the odds would’ve been better.
I grabbed the ice packs from the freezer and started packing everything into the cooler.
He had made enough food for about a week, but I learned early on in his pregnancy not to comment on food.
There were days in the beginning when he couldn’t keep anything down, and other days when he couldn’t put enough in his mouth.
He didn’t want my commentary on any of it, and I respected that.
A half an hour later, we were in the car, looking more like we were going on vacation than to a picnic in a clearing in the woods.
It was a beautiful day, so at least there was that.
When we arrived, I laid out the blankets and the throw pillows in the picnic area.
Under the blankets, I had laid egg crate foam to give some extra support.
Heston swore he was fine getting up and down, and he was, but I didn’t want him to be uncomfortable.
He was carrying a whole-ass human being inside him. He deserved the extra layer.
“What would you like to do first?” I asked. This was his day, and one of the last few we were going to have before our lives changed forever.
“Honestly, I’m exhausted. I’m thinking... a nap.”
“Yeah, we can do that.” I took off my shoes, then knelt on the blanket to help him get his off.
“Would you take your fur?” he asked hesitantly.
There was no need to be shy and he usually wasn’t. But for whatever reason, today he was.
“Absolutely.” He curled up on his side, pillows between his legs and under his head.
He watched as I got undressed. Once I took my fur, he patted the blanket beside him.
I walked over to him. He wrapped his arm around me and said, “That’s better,” hugging me close, his breaths evening out. Soon enough he fell sound asleep.
At first, my wolf was vigilant, making sure my mate was safe, but soon he realized that this was our spot, where we liked to be, and we were fine. So he allowed himself to fall asleep as well.
When my beast woke up, the sun was high in the sky. It was already lunchtime. My mate was no longer fully asleep, but not quite awake yet either. His fingers absent-mindedly ran through my fur, but his breathing still held slow and steady.
A kick in my back said our little one was not only awake, but active. I wouldn’t get over the wonder of feeling our child like that.
My mate wasn’t going to be even semi-asleep for long at the rate our pup was moving. Sure enough, a few minutes later, he mumbled against me, “Five more minutes.”
I wanted to answer and tell him that he could have as many minutes as he wanted, but I wasn’t able to as a wolf. So instead, I just lay there until he woke fully a handful of minutes later.
“Thank you. I needed that.” He pushed himself to sit and cried out.
My wolf bounded back, and I grabbed my skin, throwing myself in front of Heston, asking, “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know.” He held his belly. “Something... something.”
“Well, we best get you home.” I threw on my clothes and went to help him stand, but as I reached him, he shook his head.
“No, no, look,” and he patted the blanket beside him. “My water... it broke.”
“So it’s hospital time.” The hospital was close. I was more than happy to drive him straight there.
“No.” He held his hand out. “I think that’s why I wanted to be here. My body knew what my brain didn’t, and this is where we need to have our baby.”
“But the hospital…”
He shook his head.
“The midwife?”
More head shaking.
“The doula… anyone?”
“I just need you, Devyn. I just need you.”
I was woefully unprepared for any of this, despite having gone to all of the father-to-be classes.
It took some doing, but I was able to convince him to at least allow me to call the midwife, who said that it was fine and that they would be on call if needed.
We’d only been working with her the past month or so.
She was nice enough. She was also extremely good at what she did, having delivered over 1,000 babies in her career.
That gave me some comfort, even though I’d much prefer not to be doing this without medical assistance.
But I wasn’t giving birth. My mate was, and he was the one who had all the say.
“What do we do?” I was at a loss. The baby had to come out, that I knew.
“I need to walk around.”
I helped him up, divesting him of his damp clothes. We strolled to the river and back, stopping as his contractions started again.
“I can’t believe I thought those other ones were real,” he mumbled more than once.
“The doctor said they were just to prepare for this moment. You’ve got this, my love. You’ve got this.”
By the time we were back to our picnic zone, a much harder contraction came through, and he had to stop, holding on to me as his body shook with the pain.
“It burns,” he said.
I didn’t understand what he meant until he told me to quickly help him get on his hands and knees. That was when our birthing classes all came back—the burning sensation came when it was time to push—but it was too soon.
Wasn’t he supposed to be in labor for hours? Not that I wanted him in pain longer or that it mattered if our little one followed the rules or not. What was happening was happening, regardless.
I helped my mate down, trying not to freak out because I was about to help deliver our child. Sure, Heston was doing the heavy work, but I was the one that had to, quote, “catch the baby.”
His breaths were shallow, his body trembling as another contraction wracked through him. I placed my hands on his hips, helping him stay up, trying to offer whatever comfort I could.
“You’re doing great,” I whispered, though my own heart was racing. “Just breathe. You’ve got this.”
He nodded, his jaw clenched, a bead of sweat rolling down his temple. “I can feel it... the head,” he gasped, his voice laced with both pain and determination. “Help me on my back. My arms… they aren’t strong enough.”
I was sure that they were, but he was the boss and whatever made him most comfortable I was going to do.
He cried out again and I quickly moved between his legs. Heston was right, our baby was crowning. The sight filled me with awe and panic. It was go time and I needed to be the calm one.
“Okay, okay, just a little more. You’re almost there.” I tried to remember the words we were told during our classes, the ones that were supposed to affirm he was doing great or whatever, but I might as well have never gone to a single one for all I remembered.
“I have to push.”
“Then push, my love. Push.”
He bore down with the next contraction, his body instinctively knowing what to do. I kept my hands steady, ready to guide our baby into the world.
A deep, wolf-like howl escaped him as the baby’s head emerged fully. “That’s it, that’s it,” I encouraged him, tears pricking my eyes at the sheer beauty of the moment.
With one final push and a little help from my hands guiding our baby, they were out in the world, letting out their very first cry. It was beautiful.
“It’s a boy,” I choked out, barely able to speak through the lump in my throat.
Heston picked his head up and then fell back onto the blanket, exhausted but with a look of pure joy on his face. “Let me see him,” he whispered, reaching out.
I carefully placed our son on his chest, the tiny baby letting out a soft cry as he adjusted to the world. My mate guided him to his chest, where our son latched on for the first time, tears streaming down Heston’s cheeks as he gazed down at our son.
“He’s perfect,” he murmured.
“Yes, he is,” I agreed, leaning down to kiss his forehead, then the baby’s. “You both are.”
For a moment, we just lay there, the three of us, in our own little world. The sun was high in the sky, the breeze gentle, the sound of the river nearby reminding us of where we were. It was the perfect place, the perfect moment.
“We did it.”
“You did it. You’re incredible.”
He smiled, a tired but content smile, his eyes drifting closed as he held our son close. “I couldn’t have done it without you.”
I wrapped my arms around both of them. “And I wouldn’t want to do any of this without you.”
As the minutes passed, I watched them both sleep, the baby nestled safely against his chest. I knew our lives were about to change forever, but in that moment, everything felt exactly as it should be. We were a family, and nothing could ever be more perfect than that.